


Best Friend

by blutopaz15



Series: S3 Fics [1]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Flowers, Fluff, Mid S3, Pining, pining!Callum, pining!Rayla, rayllum valentine's week, set after 3x01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29524398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blutopaz15/pseuds/blutopaz15
Summary: Callum comes back to their campsite with flowers.Prompt #5 (Flowers) for #rayllumvalentines on Tumblr!
Relationships: Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Rayllum - Relationship
Series: S3 Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018519
Comments: 23
Kudos: 62





	Best Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Today's prompt for [Rayllum Valentine's Week](https://raayllum.tumblr.com/post/639588092987195392/hey-everyone-i-thought-with-valentines-day) on Tumblr is **Flowers**!
> 
> This is meant to take place once they pick a spot to make camp for the night after 3x01! Lots of pining!Rayla...and some pining!Callum, though sweet girl doesn't really realize it...:)
> 
> Thanks so much for reading and I appreciate any kudos/comments you are inclined to leave for me!

Rayla pulled the end of Callum’s scarf taut between her hands, looking at the golden-yellow pattern woven into the red fabric a little more closely. 

She had _intended_ on returning it to him once they’d finally picked a spot to make camp for the night. Their campfire built, she’d started to unwind the scarf from around her neck and announced that she was going to go find them some food, but Callum’s hands on her shoulders had completely derailed not only her plans...but her ability to think straight, too.

“Rayla, you were almost crushed _and_ burned to death today.” She’d let her fingers fall away from the scarf as he continued. “Then, we walked for, like, nine hours, and that was after walking all night too.” 

Her eyes had wandered to his warm fingertips brushing against the edge of her shoulder guards, his touch light but stalling her in place all the same. 

“Stay here. I’ll go find something.”

When Rayla looked up again, she recognized the gentle insistence in Callum’s eyes from watching him give Ez the same look, usually regarding some suggestion that was for his little brother’s own good. She’d seen this look aimed at her once or twice too, but he’d never been all _close_ like this with all that attention and care on his face before and she’d never felt quite this compelled to lean in just a _little_ closer and—

He seemed to have taken her tongue-tied staring as acceptance because he gave her shoulders a reassuring little squeeze before releasing her and making off towards the edge of the clearing they’d settled in, Zym bounding over to follow at his heels.

She found she could speak again with the distance he’d put between them.

“Callum, wait—” He looked back over his shoulder and shook his head slightly as she started to follow. “You don’t even know what to look for.”

Callum tapped on his pack, still on his shoulders. “So, I’ll get a bunch of stuff and you can tell me what’s okay to eat,” he said with a shrug. “Rest.” A piece of his hair fell across his eyes when he tilted his head in her direction. “Okay?”

She’d feigned annoyance, with a sigh and an eye roll, but ultimately agreed. It _was_ sweet of him, after all. _Entirely_ unnecessary, she planned on reminding him...but sweet. 

Rayla was starting to get impatient now, though, waiting for Callum’s return. It wasn’t quite that she was _worried_ and she wasn’t really starving either, but...was it dumb to miss him?

She leaned back against a tree with a yawn and rested the end of the scarf against her knees, tracing out the gold lines along the edges. 

Tired as she was, she’d been looking forward all day to sitting across the fire from...well, her _best friend._

 _Why_ did admitting that make her feel all _nervous_ ? He _knew_ he was her best friend, certainly _now_ if he couldn’t have guessed before, and _of course_ she’d want to hang out with her best friend. That was _normal._

It probably _was_ dumb and very _not_ normal to miss him after twenty minutes, though, she thought...but she couldn’t help it. 

She couldn’t help but daydream about what the rest of their evening would look like, either. _That_ also was definitely not normal.

She felt warmth bloom at her cheeks first and then spread to her ears as she traced out the little golden interlocked diamonds at the end of his scarf and found herself smiling.

He’d probably come back and crack a stupid joke for her to roll her eyes at. She was sure he’d be all excited about being in Xadia when he got back too. After they ate, maybe he’d draw something or practice some magic with his newfound arcanum before bed. She wondered how much giggling and whispering in the dark they’d do before they couldn’t keep their eyes open any longer. 

She yawned again. 

Well, maybe not _so_ much giggling and whispering tonight.

 _Whatever_ they did when he got back, she was just grateful that she wouldn’t be watching him gasp for air or toss and turn all feverishly. 

Maybe _that_ was why she was missing him after such a short time apart. The last time they’d gone more than a few minutes without speaking, it was because Callum had been very much _not_ okay...and she’d...she’d thought she’d lost him. 

Her…

Her best friend.

She was still just as red-faced, but notably more gloomy as she grasped at the double loop of red fabric around her neck.

Her best friend...whose scarf—smelly as it was—she very much wanted to keep.

Her best friend...who was _apparently_ as willing to be burnt to a crisp in the name of keeping her—and Zym—safe as she was for him—for _them_.

Her best friend...who kept _sacrificing_ and _saving her_ and _smiling at her_...

Her best friend...who was...currently approaching her with...a fistful of...flowers?

“Rayla!” Callum started, dropping his bag a few feet from the fire with a heavy-sounding thump. 

Zym zoomed ahead, launching himself right into her lap and immediately nuzzling against her hand with a happy little yelp. 

She _tried_ not to fixate on the bundle in Callum’s hand as he crossed to her. She wasn’t sure if her cheeks _actually_ got warmer or if they just _seemed_ to burn more now that she was wishing she could hide the blush.

Were those...for her? 

“Welcome back,” she said, looking first at Zym, then at...her best friend, who was grinning more widely than she’d ever seen before.

“I don’t even know if some of what I grabbed was food, Rayla, but oh, man!” Apparently ‘excited about being in Xadia’ was the evening activity of choice.

Rayla smiled back at Callum, concern over the flowers in his hand fading fast in favor of fixating on that _dorky_ look of sheer _amazement_. 

Callum was a little flushed too, she noted...though, she figured by the breathiness between sentences, that was probably from excitedly running all over this little patch of forest. _Probably_ nothing to do with the flowers.

“I know you said that it was kind of boring on the edge of the woods here, but there was still so much to see! There were all of these plants that _move_ , Rayla!” 

She chuckled at the dramatic little wiggle he did to demonstrate the motion that started from his knees and ended up making locks of brown hair bounce up and down when he was done. Her eye was briefly drawn to the flowers that quivered in his closed fist again, but she was soon once again distracted by him plopping down next to her, his back pressing against her shoulder as he gestured wildly back out towards the forest.

“There was this tree, too, Rayla, that had branches that were all bendy—Zym figured _that_ out when he tried to climb one.” He reached into her lap to pet behind Zym’s ears. “It’s a good thing he figured out how to fly, and—oh—” 

Callum reached across to _finally_ hold the bouquet of assorted flowers out to her.

She couldn’t quite bring herself to exhale and reach for them until he said:

“Will you tell me what these are called?”

She couldn’t say she wasn’t a _little_ disappointed. She wouldn’t dream of _telling_ him but...she _had_ wished that he’d picked them _just_ for her. She almost frowned about it, but then that toothy, _dorky_ smile flashed in _her_ direction and, well…

Her own grin crept across her face when she took the flowers from him.

She handed them back to him one at a time.

The first flower was a cluster of tiny white blooms, looking like a snowflake or some kind of delicate fabric.

“Well, this one is called Queen Luna’s Lace and it—”

“Do they only open up like that when you’re looking at them?” He asked, looking between her and the flower in his hand.

“Yes,” she nodded. The blossoms twitched when she blinked while Callum was turned to her. She took the next flower from the bundle to continue. “This—”

“Wait!” he interjected. “Let’s try! On three!” He turned his head to the side. Since he couldn’t see her eye roll, she added in a sigh for good measure as she looked in the opposite direction. “One...two...three!” 

The flower slowly unfolded itself as they both looked back at the green stem Callum held loosely in his fingers. Callum went from grinning, the apples of his cheeks bulging out, to his mouth hanging open now, all slack-jawed. She rolled her eyes again so he could see this time, unbothered by the fact that she couldn’t stop smiling either.

“Done interrupting?” He nodded and pressed his lips together, excitement still dancing in his eyes. “This is an Iliorchid,” she said, holding up the next flower, this one currently a dark green, matching awfully well against those green eyes of his, currently shaded a deeper color than usual—she noted—by the dusk that was beginning to fall. The fading sunlight over the tree line only made the way they shined at her, full to the brim with excitement, stand out more. 

His littlest finger brushed against her hand when he reached out to touch the dark bloom. Was that little jolt of electricity some weird, subconscious Sky magic thing?

“It was all orange and yellow when I found it,” Callum remarked, bundling it with the other flower he held.

They suited him, she thought—the green eyes. She’d thought so earlier, too, when they’d been all light and grassy in the morning light. They’d flashed so brightly when he’d given her that lopsided smile after she’d said he was her best friend...

Right. 

Best friend. 

She cleared her throat.

“Only in the sun,” she said. He reached for the next one she held up, but she pulled it away again before he could take it from her. “Here,” she said, holding it up to his lips instead of handing it over. “Say something.”

“Uhh...hello?” His voice boomed, louder than usual, the sound bouncing off of the trees around them. The little gasp he made afterward echoed too.

“Aurahlia. Amplifies sound,” Rayla explained, lips closing from a grin into a smirk. 

“Is it—” he started, jabbing a single finger in the direction of the turquoise petals before she handed it over. She nodded happily, pleased that he was as intrigued with it as she’d thought he’d be.

“Mmhmm,” she confirmed, watching his cheeks go all chubby-looking again as the grin returned. “Sky magic.”

Zym gave a little _yip,_ as he leapt from Rayla’s lap into Callum’s, and it reverberated—along with their resulting laughter—all over the clearing.

She held out the next flower to show Callum.

“That’s a Moondrop. It’s hard to tell because it’s not dark yet, but it gets kind of...glowy and sparkly at night,” she explained, looking at the lavender flower herself for a moment. “They smell pretty good, too,” she said, leaning in to inhale long and deep. 

She hadn’t really intended on shutting her eyes, but when she blinked them open, she found that he’d followed her lead and leaned closer too, sampling the scent with a pair of noisy little sniffs. He looked from the down-turned petals, then up at her, and back to the petals again, gently smiling all the while. She tried to continue on to name the last flower in her hand, but found herself mute yet again with just a few inches of air between them.

“Pretty,” Callum commented as his back hit the tree behind them again. He took the flower to add to the growing, colorful bundle in his hand and nodded to the single flower she still held, winking an eye shut as he yawned and muttered a quiet apology.

“Anemune,” she said, her voice quieter than she’d intended as her ability to speak resurfaced. The final addition to the bouquet was a large, navy colored bloom. “Also glows at night. Kind of a theme with moon stuff, I guess.” Rayla shrugged, pleased to be rid of that tremor in her voice. 

“Yeah, seems to be,” he agreed, smile twitching wider at one corner of his mouth.

“That one is bright enough to be like a torchlight, though,” she continued. “I’ll show—” Rayla’s eyes watered a little as she yawned too. “I’ll show you after dark. If we make it that long,” she snickered. She pushed against the tree at their backs to stand and stretch. “We still need to eat, too.”

She crossed to his bag by the fire, ready to unpack it and regale her _best friend_ with _more_ thrilling explanations of various Xadian vegetation, but he hadn’t followed her like she’d thought he would. Instead, he was still reclined against the tree. Zym continued to sniff at the flowers in his hand, but Callum was watching her. 

“What?” she asked.

Callum slowly twirled the entire bunch of flowers in his fist, peering at the newest addition more closely, before gently nudging Zym off of his lap and following her to the fire.

He held out the bouquet.

She hesitated a moment, her fingers pulling at the end of his scarf that hung down to her waist, while she committed another shade of familiar greenness—emerald maybe?—to memory. The firelight brought them somewhere between the grassy-green color of the morning and the deeper, dusk-shaded color from a few moments ago, but they glittered contentedly just the same.

He rocked a little closer.

Rayla hoped he hadn’t heard the way her breathing hitched when she reached for the stems and—distracted by watching the warm light flicker across his face—found her fingers had closed over his instead. 

He pushed the flowers into her grasp with that wide, lopsided smile spreading across his lips again. 

“For being my best friend.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> [Come be friends on tumblr!](https://blutopaz15.tumblr.com/) :)


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